


Crane Clue

by Treerat



Series: Nick at War [1]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Multi, World War II, based on historical event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-05 23:13:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15873666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treerat/pseuds/Treerat
Summary: While getting more information on the Pearl Harbor attack I came across an interesting, to me, story of something that happened at the drydock that the battleship Pennsylvania was berthed in.





	Crane Clue

 

Pearl Cove Naval Base, Owawwoo, Havvai; 7 December 1941, 0809 hrs.

Battleship Pennsylvania (BB-38) in drydock # 1:

 

               At seeing the enemy plane appear above the edge of the drydock, the gunners franticly moved their weapons to get a bead on it and fire before it went out of sight.  They got in about three seconds of fire before the strafer was gone.

               “I hate this!” snarled any number of the gunners.

               Being in drydock with all the water drained out left the ship’s main deck, with all of its AA guns, several feet below the top level of the drydock.  Some buildings added to the problems of seeing attacking aircraft.

               “And that damned crane driver isn’t helping matters any!” cursed more than a few.

               On the port side, someone had started running the crane there back and forth along its tracks.  It would stop and then the boom would be swung one way or the other.  A few seconds later, an enemy plane would fly past one side of the crane.

               “I appreciate that he’s trying to fend off the strafers but he’s in the way when he does that!” some commented.  

               A few moments later, some mammal figured it out.

               “Wait a minute.  He’s using the boom as a pointer!” one sailor stated.  “Pass the word!”

               For the next hour, crane driver and gunners silently worked together and the antiaircraft fire became more effective.  At 0914 hours a bomb landed near the crane and damaged it.  One Navy officer saw the operator stumbling around in the cab.

               “Crap!  He’s hurt!” the mountain lion thought as he broke into a run.

               The feline dashed across the gangplank then along the tracks to the crane.  He jumped onto the ladder to scramble up to the crane cab.  Once inside, he tackled and covered the stunned operator just as a low flying fighter made a gun run on the crane.  The 7.7 mm machinegun bullets banged off the crane’s side while others, that flew through the now glassless windows, banged around inside the cab.  The Navy mammal winched at the sounds as he strove to maintain his covering of the russet furred male beneath him.  They stayed that way through the remaining time of the attack.  At 0942 hours, things came to an end.  The ensign passed the crane driver down to the waiting hands of several sailors who, in turn, ran him to a vehicle that took the injured vulpine to the base dispensary.

 

 

               “I saw him when they brought him in,” Sharla said.  “He was unconscious and when I checked him over all he had was a few cuts, nothing serious, and abrasions.  Nick woke up a few hours later.  When I asked him what happened he told me he’d been hiding in cover when a bomb had gone off somewhere and knocked him out.”

               “And when did you find out what he had really done?” asked Gregory H. Williams, a deer stag.

               “The next day,” the black fleeced ewe said. “Several officers and crew from the Pennsylvania came by looking for him.  They had written up an informal commendation praising his assistance in helping protect the ship from low flying planes trying to attack it.  Also, they credited him with assisting in the shoot down of three enemy aircraft.”

               “Let me guess.  They read it out loud right there, in front of everyone,” the Navy corpsman said.

               “That they did.”

               “And how did you feel about what he had done?”

               “Stunned, at first.  Proud, after that, then scared as hell,” Sharla said.

               “After he got home, we kissed and nuzzled him,” a bunny doe, Judy, said.

               “Then, they verbally stripped a lot of my pelt off for being so reckless,” the fox tod, Nick, tossed in as he came from the kitchen into the livingroom.

               “Amen!” both of his mates stated.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I found the infomation on this event at these places:
> 
>  
> 
> https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/images/h64000/h64482.jpg
> 
> http://www.submarinesailor.com/biography/GeorgeWalters/
> 
> http://worldwar2headquarters.com/HTML/PearlHarbor/shipsPearlHarbor/uss-pennsylvania.html
> 
> This is the video that gave the story about the crane operator ( 4.50 to 5.05 time)
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RADv-eWXfCY&t=326s
> 
>  
> 
> PS: And, if you would, raise a glass and do a toast to George Walters for doing something that he did not have to do but did it anyway.


End file.
